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P
Prague
Guest
What an interesting story. I will keep Fr.Coyle in my prayers.
C
catharina
Guest
Remarkable and very sad story.
Glad it’s being seen in the light of day.
Glad it’s being seen in the light of day.
M
Musicadmirer
Guest
It’s good that someone had the guts to reintroduce this to the media. What I can’t wrap my mind around is how the ex- son in law of the murderer would stay in the same town as the murder occurred, and then was killed right by the Cathedral where the priest died?!
When justice doesn’t prevail on earth, you can be assured the Eternal Judge will assess the penalties.
When justice doesn’t prevail on earth, you can be assured the Eternal Judge will assess the penalties.
J
JimG
Guest
"People don’t grasp today the level of anti-Catholic bigotry that was rampant in America at the time of Coyle’s slaying, Davies said. State lawmakers enacted the Alabama Convent Inspection law in 1919 to authorize officials without a warrant to search convents to see whether any person found inside the convent was being “involuntarily confined” or “unlawfully held,” Davies said."Racism against blacks and virulent anti-Catholicism went hand in hand in the KKK of that period. Actually, there are still many people around today who have been raised on these anti-Catholic myths and think the same way, but without the violence.
Guess I will need to read this book.
Guess I will need to read this book.
M
Musicadmirer
Guest
I placed a hold on it through the public library. Searching on the web, consumers and contemporaries alike are calling this a very well written history book.
D
Digitonomy
Guest
Guts? The professor found an interesting story that illuminated the origins of a justice about whom she taught. She was so intrigued she wrote a book about it. The publisher (or perhaps the university) pitched the story idea and details to Religion News Service. RNS thought it fit well with its area of coverage, and put out a story on the book. The Knights of Columbus used the story on its own website. I don’t see where there’s bravery in any of that.
Father Coyle’s actions? That’s a different matter.
M
Musicadmirer
Guest
Actually it does take a certain degree of selflessness to expose history for what it is. The history books when I went to school were whitewashed.
Does it hold a candle to what Fr Coyle did? No. But it does count for something, even if the motivation was ‘intrigue’ as you put it.
Does it hold a candle to what Fr Coyle did? No. But it does count for something, even if the motivation was ‘intrigue’ as you put it.
C
catharina
Guest
I agree it counts for a lot.
The case caught the interest of the professor for any number of reasons.
First, the changes in the views of Hugo Black.
Second the professor’s own history.
Code:
"Hugo L. Black, later to become a U.S. senator and justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, headed the defense team, which claimed that Stephenson had been rendered temporarily insane by years of Catholic torment. Black also led the jury to believe that Gussman, of Spanish descent, was black.
At the time, marriages between blacks and whites were illegal in Alabama and many other states.
The nation's tortuous path toward racial and religious tolerance has special meaning for Davies, a child of an interracial marriage.
"Had my parents been swayed by the marriage laws that were still in place in various states, ... I would never have been born. (Nor) would any of my five brothers or sisters," she wrote for the American Constitution Society Web site. "I was nearly 7 years old by the time the U.S. Supreme Court finally got around to striking those laws down" (in its 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia). "Seems my siblings and I weren't crimes after all."
More than 45 years after Stephenson's trial, Black was part of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision ending race-based restrictions on marriages in the United States. He became regarded as a champion of civil rights.
Davies' fascinating book is an excellent work of narrative history. Rising Road deserves a wide audience."
[dispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2010/04/11/love-vs--hate.html](http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2010/04/11/love-vs--hate.html)She is a renowned lawyer and scholar.
But she is a woman and African American.
She had no NEED to highlight this piece of history.
Birmingham AL has been known for racial slaughter even in my own lifetime.
Applause for:
“Sharon Davies, a professor at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University”
D
Digitonomy
Guest
That is intriguing - I wasn’t aware of the author’s background. Good scholarship, and personal and intellectual curiosity are admirable qualities, and too often ignored in our society. However, many researchers study and write about issues that were once taboo, and to which they were drawn because they have personal connections. Areas of history they didn’t NEED to highlight. I don’t see how that’s equivalent to courage.
C
catharina
Guest
The professor’s scholarship was, at the time, related to researching “marriage laws.”
To investigate a murder case, based in reigious bigotry, takes a certin courage, IMO, since professors are always scrutinized as to subject-matter pursued and content delivered. Because the scholar is a black, young and a woman, her motives can become easily suspect. Hence: COURAGE.
I’m very sorry if you can’t see this.
7
7_Sorrows
Guest
this sounds like a very interesting book. i guess that i will have to see if i can find it.
i was born 31 years after this murder, but i have heard how anti-Catholic the KKK was, but i never read of any crimes committed against Catholics by the KKK.
this father sounds like he felt like he had lost control of his daughter in many respects.
unfortunately, he blamed the priest. the KKK certainly had a lot of power in the South back then. they were able to get the scale of justice to tip in their favor more than once.
this is a subject that i would like to investigate further.
i was born 31 years after this murder, but i have heard how anti-Catholic the KKK was, but i never read of any crimes committed against Catholics by the KKK.
this father sounds like he felt like he had lost control of his daughter in many respects.
unfortunately, he blamed the priest. the KKK certainly had a lot of power in the South back then. they were able to get the scale of justice to tip in their favor more than once.
this is a subject that i would like to investigate further.
C
catharina
Guest
Wonderful that you’re interested.
Here’s the history of my own childhood-parish in Chicago and the KKK.
In 1937, the Klan got tired of Catholics moving into the neighborhood.
(It was and still is a really lovely neighborhood.)
So one night, the Klan gathered and burned a cross on the front lawn of the rectory.
Do people still talk about this event? You bet they do!
7
7_Sorrows
Guest
i am sure that many anti-Catholic events have happened in our country, i just have not read about them or been as informed about them as what the KKK did to the African-Americans.
C
catharina
Guest
Yes. Main targets for hatred by KKK were/are Blacks, Catholics and Jews.
D
Digitonomy
Guest
Having graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 1984, I’lll estimate she’s about 47 now. More importantly, she’s had tenure since 1999, and has been a full professor since 2002. She has several awards, has sat on numerous committees at her college and university, as well as in national groups. And she’s written about controversial, race-related issues before, most notably “The Reality of False Confessions: Lessons of the Central Park Jogger Case.”
So we have someone who is beyond the uncertainties of applying for tenure and full professorship, who is already familiar with whatever blowback may arise from writing a mildly controversial racial issue and is now writing on an essentially non-controversial racial issue, who while not a superstar is certainly well-established and we can assume well-connected in the college and in legal circles. And she’s writing a book which is in fact directly related to marriage laws, and should if anything strengthen her already-solid curriculum vitae.
So this seems like a smart direction to channel her hard work, and I’m afraid I don’t see where the risk is in this move.
C
catharina
Guest
Guessing you have great good wishes for her future, I’ll simply add this. If you agree that the world of publishing/authorship is more fraught with peril for this author than for authors of gardening books, then you’ll accept my point. If not - so be it.
D
Digitonomy
Guest
I’ve been able to delve a little more into this topic and the book. I attended a talk the author gave about the book, and read the book itself.
The book provides an insightful and in-depth analysis of life and attitudes in the area in the years leading up to and in the aftermath of the crime. It especially provides details on the legal background – the changing laws, the key players, the rivalries that were in place as the trial began. If I had to cite any weakness, I’d say that Davies is not an accomplished novelist. While she has obvious sympathy for some of the characters, the passages imagining their mental anguish are occasionally awkward. She is clearly much more comfortable laying out the facts and does so with great skill obviously honed by her years of legal background. The avalanche of well-researched facts might at times bog down the story a bit for readers less interested in the arcane backgrounds of laws and institutions current in 1921, but I relished it. In spite of the author’s tilt toward a prosecutorial style rather than focusing predominantly on the emotionally riveting aspects of the story, most of the book is a page-turner. Overall an outstanding work.
I also discovered that RTE in Ireland produced a half-hour episode of its documentary series Would You Believe? on this subject, apparently prompted by the research Davies did in Ireland for her book. Although the video and personal interviews help illuminate the material in the book, it’s really more of a memorial piece – it barely scratches the surface of the historical and legal detail discussed in the book.
rte.ie/tv/wouldyoubelieve/acrossinalabama.html
The link to the video itself is on this page; the March 21, 2010 episode.
rte.ie/tv/wouldyoubelieve/av_index.html
The book provides an insightful and in-depth analysis of life and attitudes in the area in the years leading up to and in the aftermath of the crime. It especially provides details on the legal background – the changing laws, the key players, the rivalries that were in place as the trial began. If I had to cite any weakness, I’d say that Davies is not an accomplished novelist. While she has obvious sympathy for some of the characters, the passages imagining their mental anguish are occasionally awkward. She is clearly much more comfortable laying out the facts and does so with great skill obviously honed by her years of legal background. The avalanche of well-researched facts might at times bog down the story a bit for readers less interested in the arcane backgrounds of laws and institutions current in 1921, but I relished it. In spite of the author’s tilt toward a prosecutorial style rather than focusing predominantly on the emotionally riveting aspects of the story, most of the book is a page-turner. Overall an outstanding work.
I also discovered that RTE in Ireland produced a half-hour episode of its documentary series Would You Believe? on this subject, apparently prompted by the research Davies did in Ireland for her book. Although the video and personal interviews help illuminate the material in the book, it’s really more of a memorial piece – it barely scratches the surface of the historical and legal detail discussed in the book.
rte.ie/tv/wouldyoubelieve/acrossinalabama.html
The link to the video itself is on this page; the March 21, 2010 episode.
rte.ie/tv/wouldyoubelieve/av_index.html
J
John_Pascendi
Guest
The average white southerner was agaisnt slavery for it took many jobs away from them as do the illegals of today…but to save the ruling class and its kingdom they were convinced by them that the north wanted their homes and were led by ‘catlicks’ and ‘jews’ and thus the bloody war.The KKK was invented by the Demoncrat party to terrorize the freed blacks into NOT joining the new republican party down there…and thus lynchings,jim crow laws,literacy tests etc was the order of the day and nite in that God forsaken part of America. In 1939 no representative from America was allowed official sanctions to the Vatican and thus vital important information was never received in Washington because of that bigotry…We RCC folks pose a threat to the establishment for we worship only GOD never the State!
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